Three Endings
by kittykatloren
Summary: Cold dread rushed into her heart, freezing everything from her lungs to her mind. She should have expected this, she knew, from the moment than the duel had begun. Yami/Tea aka Anzu, Revolutionshipping; a series of three alternate-ending oneshots.
1. I

**A/N:** More Yami/Tea love :) This will be a three-part story, so there is more to come. The ending of the original YGO series has always fascinated me. Because I want SO BADLY for Yami/Tea to end up together, but at the same time, he had to leave, so he can have peace. Such a dilemma!

Anyway, this fic will be three separate oneshots, each addressing, basically, a different "possible" ending. I hope I do them justice! Please leave a review, as always!

**Disclaimer:** Everything you recognize belongs to the creators of Yu-Gi-Oh, not me.

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The pharaoh's eyes lingered on each of them in turn, resting the longest on Yugi's face. Somehow, Tea knew, they were communicating, speaking as clearly as if they still shared one mind. She could see it in their eyes, the silent understanding, the bittersweet promise of departure.

But when the pharaoh's eyes finally came to rest on her, Tea wished she could look away.

His gaze was a shock of intensity, a blaze of mixed emotions. With just one glance, he stole Tea's breath away, leaving her immobilized by the rush of the cold, unshakeable knowledge that this was the last time those eyes would penetrate her soul, pierce her heart. Deep inside, she longed to drink in the sight of eyes on her, every last second, like a tonic, but she knew that if she did not draw up all of her willpower and force her gaze away, she would never rest, haunted by the memory of his final glance. She had to, she _had_ to look away, there was no other option, or else – or else –

She barely felt the tear trace down her cheek. Her feet moved without her command and against her conscious will; she ran to him, her hand grasping the pharaoh's as the surreal light behind him grew ever brighter. In order to stop the tears she felt prickling behind her eyes, she bit her lip and clenched her free hand into a fist, refusing to allow the raw emotion to escape her. This was no time to cry.

"Don't go, Pharaoh," she said, her face fixed on the floor. Her words were so strained, so powerless. "Please, Pharaoh. Don't leave."

His hand slipped out of hers. For a moment, cold dread rushed into her heart, freezing everything from her lungs to her mind. She should have expected this, she knew, from the moment than the duel had begun. Quickly she tried to steel herself for that moment when she tore her gaze from the tiles at her feet to see the emptiness that the Pharaoh would leave behind, not even a mere shadow left behind to represent his presence in her world.

And then deft fingers tilted her chin up, drawing her eyes to the Pharaoh's face. They stood so close, so close that she could now see exactly which emotions burned in his violet eyes; they were no longer an incomprehensible storm to her. She saw despair, longing, agony, and flares of hope and love – love of two worlds, their impossible coexistence; the two worlds that he equally belonged to and yet could never settle in.

"You need not call me Pharaoh, Tea," he said, his voice a rumbling, anxious whisper. It carried through the stony room far more than she would have expected, resonant and colorful. "I am Atem to you. To all of you."

He glanced over his shoulder at the unknown. The band of mysterious white light was narrowing, but glowing ever more blindingly; overwhelmingly powerful energy, stronger than life, seemed to pour from the portal between worlds.

And then Atem met Tea's eyes, and, without hesitation, he pulled her into a tight, locking embrace. His arms gripped her back, and she, out of instinct, pressed herself close to him, her body and soul melting into his touch and his solidity. He was not yet a memory, not yet a traceless story lost in time - no, he was still here, so wonderfully whole and real, and she could not bring herself to let go. Desperately they clung to each other, their impossible choices left unaddressed.

All of a sudden, the hot light vanished, so immediately that Tea felt as if she had been plunged into cavelike, impenetrable darkness, even though the room was now no darker than it had been during the duel. Quickly she blinked to clear her gaze and mind. The portal had closed, the wall in front of her finally nothing more than a wall. The intricate Egyptian markings seemed duller than they had before, less poignant, less threatening, as if worn down by the passage of time.

And Atem was still there.

His face was now buried in her shoulder, but Tea felt no tears, only harsh breaths against her collar. He was holding her so tightly that it almost hurt. Tea suddenly became aware of a swarm of people and noise pressed against the pair of them, all buzzing with questions and exclamations. Slowly Atem relaxed, drew away from her; he glanced around at all their friends, the shadow of a familiar smile sneaking onto his face. He kept hold of her hand through it all. He threw an arm around Yugi's shoulders, grinned at Joey and Tristan.

To Tea, the moment was perfect. Her eyes filled with the tears she had so carefully controlled for so long, but no one seemed to notice, not even Atem, and Tea was grateful.

But later that day, she lingered quietly while the rest of the group departed from Yugi's game store, their constant rendezvous point. Yugi himself had gone upstairs to his room, leaving Tea and Atem alone at the ground floor, and she could not stop herself from asking the question that had been roaring inside all of their minds throughout the evening.

"Why did you choose to stay?" she blurted out, then winced at how harsh the words sounded in the gentle air. "I mean – I'm glad that you did. But… aren't you trapped here, now? How will you ever be able to rest?"

The pharaoh stared at her for a long moment, then glanced out the window at the star-speckled sky. "I do not know why I stayed," he said slowly. "All I know is that when you touched me – when you spoke to me – I could not bring myself to pull away from this world. Your voice brought back every memory, every feeling that I had never known before… every bond I had made in this world. I realized... I couldn't leave just yet. It was not what I truly wanted. I think I belong here, now. With all of you."

"Of course you do," said Tea. "You've belonged here since the moment we met you. I've always known that."

Atem glanced at her, his eyes as piercing as ever. In one smooth motion, he traced the tilt of her cheekbone all the way down to her lips and chin, then curled a loose strand of hair behind her ear, his touch so light and fleeting that Tea almost wasn't sure that it had happened.

"It means a great deal to me that you would say that, Tea," he murmured.

She could only nod. He was so close now that she could see every tiny, nearly invisible scar on his face – scars that Yugi did not have. These were the pharaoh's scars alone now, no matter how closely he resembled Yugi in this modern era. They fascinated her – each one, she was sure, with its own mysterious story.

"Do you – do you think you will be happy here, Atem?"

"Happy?"

Tea nodded swiftly.

"Happiness is a strange thing," he mused. His breath crossed sweetly over her skin. "Not because it is something I have never experienced. Only something that I have never _thought_ about experiencing."

Their eyes locked again, bound as if by some invisible knot. When Atem's hand rested on her waist, Tea noticed suddenly that she was still touching his arm, and at the same time, she noticed that she no longer seemed to have control over her body, for she could not pull that hand away. Tea's heart began to tap rapidly against her chest like a mouse pattering against a glass cage. "It's okay to want to be happy, you know," she said, her words sounding pathetically breathless to her ears.

"I think," said the pharaoh, "that is something I've learned from you. From my time in this world."

Unable to look away from him, Tea saw not feelings, but memories, flashing through his eyes and her mind like a cinematic version of their past. Memories of them, together and apart, their friends, their fears and their stories. For one endless moment, they were connected, mind and soul, sharing the same reminiscences.

The pharaoh's lips pressed against hers, unsure, soft. Like the balmy embrace of a steaming bath, like the promising glow of heated embers, his lips caressed hers, always careful. Tea felt the trapped little mouse in her heart scurry out of its cage, dashing wildly through her chest in its freedom. Suddenly her body remembered how to move, and she kissed him back, full of wonder. For all that her heart and mind had warred in trying to tell her, whether it was the Pharaoh or Yugi whom she loved; for all the feelings that she had buried under a wall of reason, believing that they were bound to be disappointed; now she was happy, deliriously so, surrounded by the kind of joy she did not remember experiencing ever since the shadow games and surreal wars had begun.

When Atem pulled his lips away, his fingers replaced them, a gentle pressure against her lips before she could open her mouth to speak. His eyes gleamed with violet lightness that she could only ever remember seeing a few times before.

_Happiness._ Simple happiness, the same as she had seen when they stood by the sunset together, when Yugi had been freed from the Orichalcos.

"I think I will be happy here, Tea," said Atem.

"Because this is where you belong," she said in return, smiling.

He smiled too. Now, his expression was one of exhausted relief, and he leaned his forehead wearily against hers. "Thank you, Tea," he murmured.

She couldn't speak, but simply hugged him tightly and hoped he understood.


	2. II

**A/N:** And here is part two - when Tea follows Yami to his world. This option, I think, is the least likely, but it was still interesting to write. Thank you to all those who have reviewed - keep it coming, and enjoy! The last chapter will be on its way soon.

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_Is this truly the only way, then? To leave all whom I have met, the world I have come to know more than the one that I was born into, the world I have come to love just as much as I love those in it?_

Rampant thoughts filled his head so completely that he had no space left to make a decision, the one choice he should have made long ago, as soon as he had learned of the terms of his time in this world. He should have believed in all he had told his friends. That he would achieve peace, after five thousand years, in that vague whiteness that, to him, represented nothing more than the end of his life in this world, the life that had meant more to him than anything else he had remembered. He didn't want to enter it. Not alone.

Not even closing his eyes could diminish the white light's flaming mystery. He stood there, helpless, immobile, indecisive, almost wishing that Yugi had thrown the duel, so this choice would no longer be his to make.

_No. This is, and always has been, my fate. My destiny._

But if that was true, why did he long to do nothing more than return to his friends? The ones he trusted, who represented everything pure and honest and _real_. Without knowing they were waiting for him on the other side, as they had been at every other challenge he had conquered, how could he gather the courage to venture through the empty space in front of him?

No, it was not empty space. It was peace. As he drew closer to the light, he could comprehend simple sensations pulsing from it like a heartbeat – warmth, harmony, and joy. Somewhere within that cloud was a place where he could rest after five thousand long years, lost in his own mind. Was that where he belonged, then? In a world of simple tranquility, away from his friends, but together with his past?

"_Pharaoh!_"

So close was he to the blinding brightness that he almost didn't hear the shouted word, almost didn't recognize the fierce but terrified voice. After a moment, he felt her presence cut through, straight to his consciousness. _Tea_.

_I can't leave yet, _he tried to say, yet the words would not form. But he _felt_ Tea understand them, as surely as he felt the words forming inside his head.

_I'm here with you, Pharaoh. It's okay. _

_Go back,_ he pleaded, against the wishes of every fiber of his being. _Please, Tea. I will never be able to do this if you are here. This is something I must do on my own, or else I will not have the strength to do it at all._

Barely visible in the light, she shook her head forcefully, her hair swishing and blending into the whiteness in a way that made her look like a ghost of his imagination, dreamlike in the magic. But her voice in his mind was too real, too determined.

_No. You won't be alone, because I can't… I can't let you go there alone. I don't want to lose you!_

And, in a flash of realization, of connection and emotion and concentration, he understood what she meant to do, and the thought sent thrills through his heart. Thrills equally born of elation as of fear, of longing as of logic.

_Tea, you mustn't. You belong here, in this world, and I do not. Your friends need you!_

_I belong with you,_ she said fiercely, her voice louder than ever before. _Our friends… they will always have each other. They'll always have us, too, in their hearts. But you… I can't let you go with nothing but memories. With no one by your side. It's not right. Please, Pharaoh… let me come with you!_

He saw her clearly, all of sudden, as if they had stepped out of a blizzard. Her eyes were blazing, and when he reached out, she was solid to the touch; she was _real_. Just as real as the plain stone beneath his feet, the supporting friends behind him, the peace glowing in front him. His hand found hers, and they stood there, connected, for a brief second that seemed as long as five millennia.

"Then let us go," he said, watching her eyes glow with wonder, feeling her fingers tighten around his.

They glanced back only once, filling their hearts with the love in their friends' eyes.

Then they turned, together, hands clasped. They stepped willingly into the shining light, and it welcomed them, as warm and friendly as a mother's loving arms.

_There is nothing but peace now. _

_Peace, love, and memories._


	3. III

**A/N: **And, finally, the last chapter. This is what happens in the anime - Tea and Yami go their separate ways. It makes me so sad whenever I watch it, and yet, it's hopeful too, isn't it? It's where they each belong... but anyway. Thank you to all my lovely reviewers, and enjoy this last chapter!

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Her hand reached out of its own accord. Right now, she could see him so clearly in front of her, as solid as Yugi and Joey and Tristan, as much a part of her heart as anyone she had ever known, anyone she had ever loved. And yet… was he _fading_? His violet eyes shone brightly, lingering on her; his figure seemed all of a sudden fuzzy around the edges. His eyes, his body, his strength… was it all going to leave this world for good, swallowed by the unknown, the blinding white light?

_Why?_

How could this be fair? When they had just gotten to really know him, _just_ learned his name… he had to leave them for good?

_Atem._

Tears pricked painfully behind her eyes, but Tea did not let them fall. She had to stay strong, for her friends, for him, for herself. If her heart were to overpower her mind, she knew she would not be able to trust herself; she would do something foolish and childish, like running after him, refusing to let him go, and that would only cause more heartache for everyone. They had plenty of pain to deal with already. _This is the only way. It's for the best, _she chanted in her mind, over and over again, until every other thought, every misgiving, was completely drowned out.

When she looked up at Atem again, her breath caught in her throat, so immediate and constricting that she could barely breathe. He was almost gone now, a sheer shadow of his former self visible, just outlines and pale colors. _This is it._

How could she let him go without a single word?

"Pharaoh!" she yelled, her voice cracking with the little air she held in her lungs. "Goodbye, Atem! We won't forget you!"

And, distantly, like a phantom's voice on the wind, she heard him reply. His voice sounded just as it always did, soothing and commanding, deep and soft, all at the same time; she knew that this was the last time she would ever hear it. And that made each statement all the more sweet, poignant, and _alive_. Tea reveled in every word, every tiny variation of tone, even noticing how every nuance made her skin tingle or her heart race or her face flush. Carefully and deliberately, she locked the memories away, deep in her soul where she knew they would never be lost. By the looks on the others' faces, she knew that they could hear Atem, too.

_I will always be with you_._ All of you have given me more than I could ever deserve, than I could ever have imagined… and I will always remain in your hearts._

His voice faded slowly, ringing in Tea's ears as if he had shouted. The simplicity of his declaration echoed blankly in her mind as if she had never in her life heard anything else.

It was only then that she knew that he had truly left.

The light in the cavern vanished as easily as if it had never existed. Atem was nowhere to be seen, nowhere to be heard. All around her Tea sensed only cold shock, bitterness, and dismay; her own heart twisted as if bound by rope. The truth sank into her with the violent speed of thunder and lightning. _He's gone._ _He's gone, and he's never coming back, never in this world…_

And yet…

_I will always remain in your hearts._

His words were still inside her. And, slowly, she realized something else, too – he did not leave merely words. She could close her eyes and still see him, smiling at her, his eyes twinkling, his stance proud. He would never truly be gone – not as long as she could remember him and smile rather than cry, full of the love she had come to realize just a little bit too late.

Taking a long, deep breath, Tea turned to her friends, met their distraught gazes, and shared in their pain for one final second. Then she raised her hand and let it float in the air, praying that they still understood.

They seemed to move as one. Yugi, Joey, and Tristan rested their hands on top of hers, and as they did so, Tea was sure she could feel a fifth hand join their circle, deft and breezy. A smile tugged at the corner of Tea's lips at the same moment as a tricky tear finally slid down her cheek.

"We'll be alright," Yugi said. Joey and Tristan murmured agreement, but Tea could only nod.

_We will,_ she thought to herself, and to Atem. _It'll take time. But I promise, Atem, we'll be alright… and we'll never forget you!_


End file.
